As you may have heard, Penn State won on Saturday night against West Virginia to the tune of 38-15. It wasn’t always pretty but it had plenty of pretty moments in Drew Allar’s starting quarterback debut at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions have some work cut out for them on special teams and defense, but with some time to work out the kinks, it’s no time to sound the alarm just yet. Here are the grades, and welcome back to football season.
Offense: A-
On paper Penn State’s offense has plenty of weapons, but there was a bit of a question mark going into Saturday night regarding what this group was going to look like out of the gate. A wideout room looking to establish itself, a new quarterback and an offensive line without Landon Tengwall were all things to consider. When it was all said and done on Saturday, this group was the best Penn State put on the field. Drew Allar looked better than most probably expected him to right off the bat and the duo of Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton both rumbled for more than five yards per carry averages. At receiver Malik McClain really shined in the No. 3 spot with four receptions and the tandem of KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Trey Wallace both lived up to their billing with 11 catches and nearly 200 yards between the two of them.
Allar was accurate while passing for 325 yards and looked the part of a poised veteran even as he made his first collegiate start. A few missed passes here and there were avoidable, but nobody is perfect. Penn State went 3-for-9 on third down but averaged 7.4 yards per play. Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich said points per play is his metric and the Nittany Lions averaged 0.58 points per play over the 65 offensive snaps of the night. The offensive line looked solid but more than a few snaps to Allar were higher than he may have liked them, a small detail of note. A four-for-five effort in the red zone didn’t feel as good as it could have, especially late in the game with two drops that would have been touchdowns.
Overall this was a solid outing for a group that had some questions and answered all of them. There’s not a glaring thing to knock this grade for, but Allar had a near interception that should have been and the third down mark hurts this grade slightly. Otherwise a good opening stanza. Bonus: 13 plays of 10 or more yards.
Defense: B-
This group didn’t play poorly, but the general expectations for this unit weren’t lived up to on Saturday. The general knock on this bunch is that the run defense on the interior of the line won’t match what the defensive ends can do and that was fairly evident on Saturday. One game is not a season but any early season hopes that Michigan won’t eventually be able to carve Penn State up on the ground were not helped much by a West Virginia team that somehow only averaged 3.7 yards per rush but had six carries for 10 or more yards on the night. Garrett Greene was more of a threat with his legs than arm (but did average 10.1 yards per completion), rushing for 71 yards on the night in an effort that felt very – insert Ohio State quarterback of choice here – not a great sign of potential things to come. In fairness some injuries kept Penn State from its full allotment of starters and depth on that defensive front. All the same, missed tackles, bad angles and a few escaping quarterbacks didn’t help any.
Curtis Jacobs led the way with 10 tackles while star linebacker Abdul Carter somehow only had one stop on the entire night, which fittingly was a sack. WVU managed a four-for-14 effort on third down and gave up six tackles for a loss on the night. In some regards, Penn State’s defense played more than well enough to win and never really got threatened, but also played poorly enough at times that it was hard to ignore. Expectations are going to hurt this group’s grade for the foreseeable future if it can’t come together. One imagines Delaware next week will prove a different test.
Special Teams: D
Two missed field goals, a false start, a near out of bounds kickoff and a bad punt. It wasn’t a good night for a group that you could see issues with weeks ago and have not gotten much better. If Alex Felkins can provide stability to the field goal kicking unit that will change perceptions greatly, but for now everything is just kind of bad. The return game was nonexistent, but with everything else going on, not being a problem is more important than being a weapon. He’s dealt a tough hand, but if special teams kills a promising Penn State season it’s safe to say you can guess which assistant will take the brunt of the blame.
Coaching: A
Penn State’s offense looked good and didn’t seem to lose a step with Mike Yurcich calling plays from the box. The first team defense really only gave up seven points all game and despite some bad moments didn’t exactly look inferior to West Virginia’s offense. Special teams was bad but how much can you blame a coach for guys missing field goals they probably make in practice. All told, there were some Week 1 bumps in the road, but of the things you might say “that could be better” from Saturday, coaching wasn’t really a factor on the list.
Overall: B
This was the classical version of the game where it looks ugly at times and it doesn’t feel great and then you realize Penn State won by 23. There’s room for Penn State to get better across the board but that’s basically every team in America.
